not a greaser

“Yeah, yeah I’ll be fine,” she said and in Noelle’s absence she tried to scold herself into acting normal. Still, it didn’t stop her from watching Noelle walk away or come back into the room in her robe. “Wait? Really? With me?” The shock was clear in her voice for many reasons. One, Lupe had always been surprised that Noelle had noticed her out of everyone. That they had built up their friendship enough to be best friends. Noelle had made the transition to living in Rosewood an easier one, even if she missed Puerto Rico every damn day. Second, she generally had not had that confidence in herself. The one that Noelle clearly had in her and it made her want to be that person. Who wasn’t a blushing mess right now. She glanced down at their hands and gave Noelle’s a squeeze. “Yes, yeah I’m okay, I swear,” she told her softly and sunk down to lie next to Noelle and looked up at her. “You know, before shit went crazy in my life I was actually pretty confident,” she started, turning Noelle’s hand over to trace the lines on her palm. “Best basketball player on the island, at least according to Liam, a promising future,” and then she had met her biological mother, but Lupe couldn’t say that. Not to mention her relationship with Franco had been so comfortable, so easy, so safe. “And then I just kind of got lost, the push and pull between here and the island, the identity crisis, all of it.” She glanced up at Noelle and smiled softly. “You’re so important to me, Noe. I guess I kind of woke up and freaked out because I don’t know, if we were gonna sleep together I would at least have wanted it to be more memorable,” she teased, bringing Noelle’s palm up to kiss it gently. “I would’ve been a lot more charming. And way less drunk.”

“Yeah, really, with you.” Noelle laughed in disbelief. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re sexy as hell and you’re one of very few people outside of my family that I know and don’t hate.” That family included the very extended greasers family she was connected to but even a few of them she could do without. She held her gaze as Lupe adjusted her position to laying down. She smiled as she listened to what Lupe’s life had been like before moving here. “That makes sense, you know. There’s nothing weird about that identity crisis and culture shock. The confidence thing comes with it sometimes, I guess. But all of that can be true, here. And, even without basketball and a promising future there’s a lot to be confident about in you, Lupe. That’s only a small part of who you are.” Noelle brought her free hand to the side of Lupe’s neck and let her thumb trail slow lines along her jaw. “We aren’t dead, yet. There’s time for a do over if you’d like one. No pressure, of course.” Her thumb found its way to Lupe’s bottom lip and grazed over it slowly. “I want to if you do.”

**

Lupe blushed at the comment and laughed softly. “No, I mean I remember. Some of it, most of it,” she admitted, every bit of it sending a flush of warmth through her body and she wasn’t sure how to handle that. “Yeah, yeah I’m okay. I mean my head is pounding but I’m okay,” she admitted and sank down a bit into the pillows. “I guess I haven’t gotten that drunk in a really long time. Probably since the first time we met,” she joked and looked over at Noelle, her expression softening as she did. “This isn’t..weird for you? I mean it’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked but I mean…” she was blushing against, clutching the covers up to her neck as she thought about it. “Was I..I mean was it..good? For you?”

.

Noelle’s lips quirked up in a small smile as she watched her best friend work through her thoughts in real time. “It’s okay if you don’t remember. That’s the thing about partying. You have a great time you’ll never really remember.” A notch formed between her brows showing her concern for Lupe. “Will you be okay on your own for a second? I’ll grab some water and advil.” Noelle didn’t bother to cover herself up as she left her bed but she returned clothed in a robe for Lupe’s benefit. The way she was clutching the sheets to her neck made Noelle feel like blatant exhibitionism wasn’t the right move. “Here, take this. Honestly, no. It’s not weird for me. I’ve thought about sleeping with you more than once in our friendship. I’d like to do it again sober so you can remember it and we can both be fully present for it.” She laid back down on top of the covers, her robe falling open a touch at her chest. “What I can remember of it was great, yeah.” Noelle reached out to take her friend’s hand. “Are you okay? You seem like you’re freaking out. If you need to run away for a bit I won’t hold it against you.”

***

“I mean if they paid us for that skill we’d be the richest people on earth, surely.” Willa could feel her cheeks flush the more Grace spoke. It still overwhelmed her in the best way possible that someone could love her like this. Love her this much. Grace had always made it clear how attracted she was but once they had gotten together, her clear intention to always show Willa she was loved had always meant a lot. The more Grace spoke, the more curious Willa became. “Babe, you’re gonna make me cry at this point,” she told her softly, though the more she went on, Willa was starting to realize what might actually be happening. “Oh my god, Grace, are you…” she cut herself off as Grace continued and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She had done all of this to propose? Now there were definitely tears in her eyes as she watched Grace get to one knee. 

“You did all of this to propose to me? God, this is the most romantic day of my life,” she told her softly, laughing as she covered her face for a moment to regain composure. “Yes! God, yes, of course, yes. Are you kidding?” She looked at the ring, tears falling as she let Grace slide it on. “Of course it’s a perfect fit.” She pulled Grace in for a kiss, getting to her feet so she could wrap her arms around her. “You knew you were gonna propose when we were talking the other day, didn’t you?” She brushed her nose against hers before kissing her again. “I want all of the things with you. I love you so much. I mean I get to be your wife? Your wife?! Oh my god, it’s a literal dream,” she told her, kissing Grace all over her face as she laughed and she let her tears flow. She pulled back to look at the ring on her finger, catching her breath as she felt Grace wiping away her tears. “You really are my Princess Charming, you know? The way you swept me off my feet and we never looked back. Aside from pretending like we were broken up for a total of four days,” she teased and turned back to Grace, her expression softening. “Every day with you is the best day of my life, Grace.”

.

Grace couldn’t remember ever feeling as proud of herself as she felt as she heard Willa’s acceptance followed by ‘of course it’s a perfect fit.’ She’d put so much effort into planning the day, finding the perfect ring, and keeping things secret. For things to be playing out this well was a dream come true. She stood with her fiancee and held onto her tightly as she kissed her. She’d kissed Willa a million times but this felt different. This was a forever kind of kiss and she never wanted it to stop. “Yeah, I did.” She beamed. “I thought you were onto me when it came up and I almost panicked but then I could tell you were just thinking about it as a long term thing. I did laugh a little at you thinkin’ you were gonna beat me to the punch.” Grace leaned in and kissed her again, taking her sweet time now that they really did have forever ahead of them. “You get to be my wife and I get to be yours. I never even thought I wanted to be a wife until I met you, you know?” She wiped away Willa’s tears with her thumbs without sacrificing an inch of space between their bodies. She laughed and nodded, leaning in to catch her lips again and again. “Same here, baby. It’s only up from here, too.” Another kiss. “Starting with tomorrow. I think your parents might have planned an over the top brunch to celebrate.”

From what Lupe could remember about the night, she had fun. She had definitely drank more than she meant to but with Noelle’s encouragement she had been able to let loose a bit, get out of her head. Apparently a lot out of her head because dancing together had led to being very close together and somewhere between the shots and actual drinks, Noelle had been the only thing she could or wanted to focus on. Still, it wasn’t unusual for her to be asleep in Noelle’s bed after countless sleepovers. But this time was different. They had been close to each other, basically cuddling, both of them naked and their clothes were all over the floor. She winced as the sunlight came into the room and she started to wake up, glancing at Noelle stirring beside her and just like that, the memory came hitting like a train. “Holy shit,” she said softly, pulling the covers up to her neck. “Did we..did we..?” She spoke softly, a bit shocked at herself. Not because it had been with a woman but because that woman had been Noelle. She didn’t want to run though, just stayed there until Noelle actually woke up. @castillo-javier​

The previous night wasn’t exactly standard for Noelle but she hadn’t done anything she’d never done before or wouldn’t do again. The only novel experience had been sleeping with Lupe. They had been best friends for as long as she could remember and she’d definitely thought about it before but they never could. Lupe had a boyfriend for years and Noelle was plenty busy on her own. The molly had done its job and once they started dancing it was hard to keep her hands in check. Lupe responded positively to every escalation so Noelle continued to escalate. She was as careful as she could be with the drugs and alcohol flowing through her system but she wasn’t at all surprised to find her naked body curled up behind Lupe’s the next morning. She blinked rapidly and stretched as she tried to bring her brain to where Lupe’s was currently. She sounded surprised and her body language wasn’t exactly excited so Noelle treaded carefully. “Yeah, we did.” She replied evenly. “I’ll pretend it doesn’t hurt my ego that you have no memory of it. Are you okay?” Noelle propped herself up on her elbow as she looked at her.

**

Willa was relaxed. Truly relaxed which was not something she felt often. When she had told Grace she had the day off, she had expected them to stay home and watch a movie, catch up on laundry and watch shitty tv. But Grace very clearly had other thoughts and Willa was just along for the ride. She figured that Grace was just being her usual romantic self. Taking advantage of the bit of time she had off before she was full steam ahead for the last half of her term. Or maybe their conversation about kids and a house and a marriage had just prompted her to celebrate them which was what Willa had settled on by the time they were in the midst of their massages. Willa could have fallen asleep right there. Between the morning of sex, the extremely filling breakfast and the woman with very strong hands working at the knot in her neck, she was absolutely in heaven. She didn’t even bother to think ‘what did i do to deserve this’ because she felt more than deserving. 

But just when she thought they were going home to nap and waste away the rest of the day, Grace had told her about dinner and her surprise was hard to hide. But doing something special for her on her day off made sense and Willa just found herself falling in love all over again with someone who would go above and beyond just to give her a really good Thursday. 

Willa couldn’t believe that she still had it in her to blush, basking in the feeling of the sun and Grace’s praise. “You know, I’m surprised my head hasn’t exploded with how much you’ve complimented me today. Not that it’s any more than usual but please, my cheeks, they’re going to explode,” she joked, giving Grace’s hand a squeeze. “Are you kidding? This has to be like the best Thursday I’ve ever had. I’m not surprised you planned all this out but I am a little stunned. I mean, massages, double digit orgasms? That dessert we just had was so fucking good I wish I could eat it ever day and that sauce we had for the shrimp will forever live in my dreams. I have to look up how to make it when we get home.” She leaned over to kiss her and smiled against her lips. “Have you had a good day, Princess Charming?”

.

Grace beamed at the response. She had been nervous about the day for weeks at this point. She could feel herself relaxing a bit with every success but it was all building up to the moment ahead of them. “If that was a possibility your head would have exploded years ago. I like making my girlfriend smile, sue me.” Her smile only grew when Willa continued to rave about the day they were having. “I stunned, huh? Good to know five years in I still got that romantic muscle to flex. For the record, I’d give you double digit orgasms every day if you’d let me. If we both quit our jobs and dedicate ourselves to this mission...” She grinned as she leaned in to meet her lips in an easy kiss. “Oh, I’ve had an amazing day. I love being the reason for your good time, baby. And a whole day away from the stress of work for both of us is so rare.”

She hadn’t planned the exact spot where she’d be proposing but they came to one she thought would be perfect. There was no one around for yards on either side and there was an open bench facing the water. She led Willa to it and sat down with her. “Not to get all corny on you, baby, but do you have any idea how much I love you? I’m being serious. I mean, you have changed my life so much in too many ways to count all for the better. You are hands down the most beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, caring, kind woman I’ve ever met. I don’t know how I got lucky enough that you want me in your life but I’m so grateful that I did.”

“You know, we were talking the other day about the future. The dream house, the animals, the kids... I meant it when I said I wanted all of that.” Grace pushed through her nerves. Her knees were shaky but she only had to move from the bench to one knee so she made the transition smoothly. “I want everything with you, Willa. I want the ups and the downs that are gonna come our way. I want you to be part of my family and I wanna be part of yours. I want to  see the world with you and I wanna settle down here in Rosewood. Everything. I want everything with you, my love.” She pulled the ring box out of her pocket and cracked it open toward her. With a hopeful smile on her face, she asked the question. “Will you marry me?”

**

“I mean I always miss home but when I’m with Colette, everywhere feels like home, you know? We have our fun then we come back and rest and then go off on tour. It’s really for us to just get some time together. We don’t rush. If we miss a flight or a boat or whatever we manage.” Though it had been a long time since either of them hadn’t flown chartered. Brodie listened to everything she said, knowing in his heart that she had planned something that Willa could never forget. “I mean I think Coco and I may have to postpone the trip a bit so we can throw you an engagement breakfast,” he said softly as he thought about it, knowing his wife would feel the same. The idea of their daughter getting engaged and them not being around wouldn’t sit right with either of them. “Do you need help securing a restaurant? I have a few in mind, I mean, Grace,” he took a pause and cleared his throat, “Of course you have my blessing. I won’t speak for Colette but I feel comfortable in saying you have our blessing as a whole. We’ve seen how happy you make her, how much balance she has in her life since she met you. Who wouldn’t want that for their kid? I mean I could say you guys are young but I had a kid when I was a teenager and said kid ran off to Vegas to get married so I don’t think that argument holds much water,” he joked, reaching across to give Grace’s hand a squeeze. “You have my support 100%. I appreciate you even making time to talk to me about it. I appreciate it more than you could ever know,” he said and it was his turn to tear up as he thought about it. “Oh we’re going to get to plan a wedding and so many parties oh god, this is such a gift,” he admitted, tears pooling in his eyes. “Thank you. For giving us the chance to celebrate in all of this. We really love you, Grace. I hope that’s clear. And you know I’ll take any excuse to dance around with Javi and Emory.”

.

Their love sounded like something out of a movie. It was a life she aspired to on some levels. Not necessarily the fame or glitz but knowing so deeply that her home was in another person and she could be that for someone else. She found that in Willa, she knew she had. “No, I have a reservation at that nice place by the water. But thank you for offering. You don’t have to move your trip. We can celebrate when you get back. I should have talked to you sooner.” She couldn’t help her smile growing wide as he gave her his blessing. She knew everything he said was true but hearing it from Willa’s dad made it that much more real. “That’s what my parents did and they’re still together. Maybe Marnie’s in for a lifetime of love, you never know.” She said with a soft laugh. She hadn’t been prepared for dad tears. She squeezed his hand back and maintained her smile. “Of course. I can’t imagine doing this without our families. I don’t think Willa would want it that way, either. For the record, I love you guys too. As far as in-laws go I think I got luckier than anyone could have imagined.”

Dinner was the nicest part of the night, by far. She’d splurged on the restaurant with good views of the water and was able to pass that off as “just wanting to do something special for my girl. You deserve it.” when the inevitable surprise was expressed. She’d wondered whether she’d done too much. She was sure the dinner would blow her cover. Grace thought about asking the question at the table but something felt off about a public proposal to the Mayor of Rosewood. They lived so much of their lives publicly. She wanted this to be just theirs. 

The sun was low in the sky as they walked along the water. There were scattered small groups of people around but most of the crowd from the day was gone. It was the perfect setting. Now Grace just had to find her nerve. She turned to look at her girlfriend and was struck by how beautiful she looked in the light of the sun. “Shit, is this golden hour? I never understood what people were talking about when they said that but I think I get it. You look--” She pressed a kiss to the back of Willa’s hand before she let go of it to grab her phone and snap a picture. “Damn, baby. How does it feel to be god’s favorite?” Grace set the photo as her new phone background before she put it away and took her hand again. “Tell me the truth. Was today a good day?” @brodiebalcoin​

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***

“More like where are we not going. Lots of traveling here and there, South America, mainly at our house in Brazil and then over to Morocco, then Spain, Greece, Italy, you name it, we’re gonna spend some time there. Mostly to eat and take pictures and eat and take pictures,” he joked and probably hook up like they were still two teenagers but he didn’t need to say that. He took a breath when she started to explain why she had asked him out to dinner and he almost choked on his drink but he managed to compose himself. “Propose? This week?” He had to take a moment, not having ever been in this situation before. These days Prince was perpetually single and Marnie had gone off and had a vegas wedding on her own. So this..well this seemed to be the only time this would happen and he had to take a breath so he could remember it. “Wow, okay. So, break it down for me. What’s the plan? You already have a ring?”

.

“Damn.” The word fell out of her mouth without really reaching her mind. “I can’t imagine traveling around like that all the time. Do you ever miss home and chilling out or do you just love being out all the time?” She nodded, nervous but holding strong in her face. She couldn’t read whether he was happy for them or against the idea thinking they were too young or something else. “Yeah, this week. I have the ring, yeah. It’s at my parents’ house so she can’t find it on accident. She’s off on Thursday so I was going to make a day of it. Breakfast at home, massages; I want to help her relax on her day off. Then I’m planning on taking her to dinner at a nice restaurant in the city and then a walk by the water where I’ll ask the question.”

“please don’t remind me they’re we’re aging. i prefer to remain ageless.” emory replied over their shoulder. it was true when they said life could change in the blink of an eye. emory didn’t know when they had become the parent of four adult children. the years of blissful marriage with javier stacked between that time was also something that came about fast. it felt like yesterday they were jetting off to vegas and getting married. many years later they still were, happily so, with a family of their own. one that would be changing soon with their darling grace getting ready to propose to her long time girlfriend. it made emory emotional, more than they let on. their babies were no longer babies and the truth was: they were indeed getting old. “please don’t also remind me that our babies are no longer babies. how much heartache must you put me through in the span of two minutes! oh i always knew our little grace would be first once she set eyes on willa. she’s in love javi.” they smile at their husband graciously as they look the glass and smiled even more once their forehead was kissed. god, did they love this man. 

“amor, you are timeless.” Javier beamed at them. “and look at us. no one’s looking at us thinking these are a couple of old frumps, are they? you’re aging like the finest of fine wines.” They were beyond lucky to have found each other when they were as young as they were. They got married young but had continued to have fun and remained blissfully in love to this day. “Oh, I’m sorry. Does the hard reality of our lives cause you that much heartache? Yeah, that’s a good point. She looks at Willa like I looked at you when we were young. Who am I kidding? Like I still look at you. It’s so embarrassing but I’ve got a huge crush on my partner.” He gave them a knowing look. “She’s asking Brodie for his blessing tonight, can you believe that? I’m trying to picture what it’d have been like if you went to my dad to ask for his blessing.” Javi cringed at the memory of his father back then. They wouldn’t have been in the hospital or anything but he was sure the idea wouldn’t have been as well-received as it was when it was presented as a fact of life after it happened.

“Alright fuckers, guess who has two fingers, a near perfect body by anyone’s standards and is as of right now officially off of parole. And before you try and answer with some smartass comment just know I fully plan on celebrating and your next words determine if you get to celebrate with me or not. And trust me, you want to.” 

“I can’t get behind this near perfect body by anyone’s standards. Too broad to be true.” Grace smirked and she held out her hand to clap against his. “Congrats anyway, though. two out of three ain’t bad. What are you doing to celebrate?”

**

“Alright, alright then let’s drink. What are you having? I’m feeling something fruity. This weather is really agreeing with me today.” He smiled at her questions, sure she was prolonging something but he wouldn’t rush her. She had said it wasn’t bad. “I’m good, getting ready for vacation with Colette. We’re gonna be gone for like two weeks before both of us start prepping for tour again so of course we’re being picky about our outfits and it’s going to take way longer than it needs to, to pack but that’s just who we are.” Brodie always ended up buying more clothes on the trip anyway. “Ah you saw that? It was nice to be out there. Prince was great. Seems like he got his mojo back so that’s amazing. Willa told me you guys had a good time. How’s work been?”

.

“I’m almost never in the mood for fruity. It’s summer though, right? I heard the sangria here is good so I’ll do that.” Grace wanted a shot of something much stronger to ease her nerves but she powered through. Brodie wasn’t someone she needed to be afraid of. Willa was the mayor of the town, for fucks sake. Marriage usually came before political power, did it not? “Where are you two going?” She laughed softly at the idea of the two of them coordinating their outfits for the benefit of getty images. She wondered when it became so normal to know global celebrities this well. “Yeah, he sounded good, too. Consider his groove back.” She smiled at the mention of her and Willa at the festival. Surely Willa had omitted the part of the day that she remembered so vividly from her father. “We had a great time, yeah. Her phone didn’t make an appearance all night and the city survived through it.” Their drinks arrived and Grace clinked her glass against his before she took a large gulp. “So, obviously I don’t invite you out to dinner often. You know there’s something up already. I wanted to talk to you about something. I’m planning to propose this week. To Willa.” She clarified unnecessarily. “I wanted to talk to you about it and make sure, I don’t know, that I have your blessing I guess?”

**

“So you really do want to carry me around everywhere because at this point I doubt I’m going to be able to fully stand on my own two feet at some point.” She bit at her bottom lip as she felt Grace’s hand inbetween her thighs and let out a low breath. “Don’t you dare start something you’re not gonna finish,” she told her softly, her cheeks already hot from the contact. “I think so, yeah. I mean where else? Just as long as it’s not super close to my parents or we’ll always find my Dad stealing stuff from our fridge,” she joked, but she loved the idea of having a home her family could visit. A place for her and Grace’s siblings to be. A place that was truly hers and Grace’s sounded like the best dream. “I will, I mean as long as you don’t beat me to it but I tend to be good at planning,” she added, having put in quite some thought into asking her once they were finally on a trip together. Sure it was a while off but Willa figured the time would fly and she was being pretty selective about the ring she wanted to give Grace. “Oh a diamond, huh? Are you going to buy me diamonds now?” She smiled sweetly at her as she felt her kisses and easily moved closer to kiss her back. “A beautiful life,” she repeated, brushing her nose against Grace’s as she thought about it. “Not to get all serious as we’re making out but have you ever thought about wanting kids? Like just..in general. We’ve never really talked about it.”

.

“What’s up, GC? Please tell me you got those tik toks I sent you yesterday. I really thought they would like ‘em.” Brodie was already smiling as he spotted Grace waiting for him and opened up his arms to give her a big hug. He had been surprised when Willa had told him she was dating someone, always figuring she would be too busy to make time for it. But he had been happy to see her go for it and getting to know Grace had been a lot of fun for him. She was a known favorite of his and he found himself always hoping that two of them would work both for Willa’s sake and his chances to hang out with Grace. “Should I be worried that you’re treating me to dinner? Are you trying to tell me you crashed one of my cars are something. Should I be getting a drink?” @castillo-javier​

Grace was nervous as hell to talk to Brodie but she knew she had to do it. Not really for the asking for permission to marry his daughter bullshit but, because she wanted to know that they were on board with her decision. Family was important to Willa and she wouldn’t take this next step without considering them. She smiled at his nickname for her and rolled her eyes in spite of herself at his question. Thankfully it was hidden as they hugged. “I did get them and you’re right, I did like ‘em.” She pulled out her seat and gestured for him to do the same cringing over how formal that felt. “No, no it’s nothing bad. You might want a drink before I start, though. I know I do.” She smiled at the waiter approaching them and they put in their drink orders. She was sure her nerves were showing despite how bad she was fighting to hide them. “How are you? Did you have a good weekend and everything? Your set was great at the festival.”

***

“Oh but you did out do me. Can you not see me swooning right now? Later I’m going to make you list out every single thing you love about me,” she teased, but she definitely wouldn’t mind a short list. “Mm, I’ve been thinking about that a lot actually. I also love our apartment. I was thinking in this post Mayor life we travel more. See the world together. Have sex in as many countries and municipalities as possible,” she added and leaned in for another kiss. “And then when we save enough to get our big dream house we can get a pet. I don’t know what kind yet but I can see it. Maybe a dog. Maybe a cat. Bunnies are way too much mess.” She reached out and brushed her thumb across Grace’s cheek. “And then you know, I mean eventually I’ll put a ring on it,” she added with a smirk, a little nervous about mentioning marriage. They had been together almost a little over five years at this point and it felt like a natural path. And because she couldn’t imagine wanting to be with anyone else. But she wasn’t sure how Grace felt about it.

“Sure, sure. But it’s not really enough until I make your knees weak.” Grace grinned devilishly at her girlfriend and slid her hand between her thighs, stopping just below the fabric of her bathing suit bottoms. She nodded, humming in approval at all of Willa’s ideas as she teased her with gentle fingers. She happily kissed her when she leaned in for kisses, nodding. “I like the sound of that, baby. No bunnies, though. I agree. They’re way too messy. Where’s this dream house? Rosewood?” Grace liked the idea of traveling and seeing the world with Willa but she always thought of Rosewood as her home base. Their families were here and she felt anchored to the town for better or worse. “Oh, will you?” Grace grinned and her cheeks flushed. Willa couldn’t know about her plan to propose somehow, could she? Grace had gone to great lengths to keep her plan under wraps. “Let me see,” she took Willa’s left hand in hers to look closely at it. “Yeah I could see a diamond lookin’ good as hell on that finger.” She brought her hand to her lips, kissing the spot on her ring finger where a ring would be placed soon enough and then kissing again on the palm, inside of her wrist. She pulled her closer, bringing that same hand to her own back as she kissed Willa again freely. “That sounds like a beautiful life, baby. I want all of that with you.”